Any such discussion requires a reference to young Stalin. You take your chances....

I’m a prof. Let me be clear - it sure as heck isn’t my fault. Between 2008-2014, I got almost nothing. Over my whole career, about 20 years, the biggest raise I’ve ever seen was 3%, except for the one time jump when I got tenure, about 7%. The years we actually get raises, it’s more like 1-2 %.

An adjunct making $46K is doing damn well.

Tenor sax one year, the big bass drum another. That was cool! Me, super nerd with a starring role! (Way, way before nerds were cool.) I will also point out that for two years I was perhaps the only person ever to march with an oboe.

Yeah, it’s elitist bullshit. The argument runs a) he was a guy from the sticks with barely a high school education and b) the only documents we have from him are business related — and the stuff about getting a coat of arms. As for b) - that makes him one of the best documented non-elites of his generation! And a) -…

Sometimes, food gets stuck about halfway down my esophagus. Then saliva and mucus back up, and I choke. A surgeon told me, “We could clip a couple nerves, see what happens.” I declined, and have managed my problem by just eating slowly and being sure to chew my food. These food eating contests are horror stories to me…

One thing I like about port (besides just really liking it) - generally, you get what you pay for. An expensive port is highly likely to be better than a cheap one.

The correlation between price and quality in wine, I find, is weaker. Not non-existent, but weaker.

I was stunned when I got DNA back that showed I was 100% European (Though, where’s that Spanish line come from?) We even have a picture of a woman who is obviously a relative and is quite dark. Well, she may be a relative, but she’s no ancestor. Maybe my hypothesis that we had a Mediterranean background (before I…

I think at least some of it is elite schools vs. everywhere else. My students are mostly working and lower-middle class. I don’t have any of these problems.

Just got an e-mail from a student who wanted me to explain why she got a 96 instead of a 100 on a writing assignment. I really want to write back and say, “Spend a couple more decades reading everything you can, and writing every time you get a chance. Then you’ll know.” Seriously, you’re almost certain to get an “A”…

Oh come on. You do realize that a gun is much more effective, much more deadly than most “other means” and suicide is often an impulse act. This whole “Gee, he would have found another way,” is one of the most bullshit arguments of all. If that’s the case, why do we bother with ANY security? Why do we try to keep guns…

Well, one thing monotheism has never really explained - if God is male, what does He do with His penis?

Donald Trump, Christian Supremacist. As someone who actually remembers the ‘80s, I find this both amusing and horrifying.

Or design it so you can film in landscape while holding the phone the way it was designed to be held.

Because it’s the natural way to hold the phone. Complain to Apple.

Take it up with the people who designed the phone/camera. People film that way because it’s the natural way to hold the device.

When did he finally figure that out? Ok, then.

And of course Trumpeteer is my FB feed posted “If ever there were people who needed to use birth control.”

Real hipsters use the one at Basement East.

And they went to Tin Roof. That’s smack in the middle of the tourist district!